Hydrocarbon heater



e s BARROWS HYDROCARBON HEATER.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 22,1918.

Patented Mar. 7, 1922".

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G. S. BARROWS.

HYDROCARBON HEATER.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 22,1918. 1,408,433.

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. l GEORGE S. BARROWS. OF PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND, ASSIGNOR 'IO- GENERAL FIRE EXTINGP'ISHER COMPANY, OF PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

nxnnooamson HEATER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 7, 1922.

Application filed July 22, 1918. Serial No. 246,057.

tain new and useful Improvements in Hy-' drocarbon Heaters, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in hydro-carbon heaters. More particularly .it relates to improvements. in apparatus for utilizing the potential heat of liquid hydrocarbons or .of the b -products of gas manufacture, such as pitc tar, etc., or other combustible material, for heating dwellings and other apartments. It is an object of the invention to provide means for utilizing the heat to a very high degree-of efiiciency; to do this with simple and inexpensive apparatus having an increased capacity or rate of burning as compared with ordinary practice; and to do this with apparatus which op-' erates at or near full efficiency even though worked at only a fraction of full capacity. There are other advantageous results of the invention, some of which are mentioned here-- inafter; and the invention may be applied in various ways within the scope of the appended claims. It is intended that the patent shall cover by suitable expression in the appended claims whatever features of patentable novelty exist in the invention disclosed.

The objects of the invention may ordinarily be attained with use of any burner suitably constructed for burning the. particular fuel that is to be used. In the case taken for illustration, this is kerosene; and a burner such as is found in any ordinary successful kerosene stove usedfor domestic purposes may be chosen, preferably a so-called yellow flame burner, set in a combustion chamber. With this are to be combined an allenclosing casing; a conduit for the products ofcombustion leading downward, having a considerable length within the casing and made of good heat conducting material; and suction means operated mechanically to drawthe products of combustion through the conduit. The casing is connected with means for inducting cold fresh air at the bottom, which air absorbs heat from the outside of the said conduit, and afterwards rises from the top of the easing into the apartment that is to be heated.

There is, practically, a combustion chamber and a passage for its products enclosed within an air passage, the contents of the two passages flowingin opposite directions. As compared with a coal furnace operating through an ordinary chimney flue, the invention eliminates the need for the temperature differences which cause draft in the flue. It follows that products of combustion can be reduced, by extraction of heat, to a temperature closely approaching that of the surrounding air; and by taking cold air from out of doors, as is customary with coal furnaces, it is ossible for the heat ofthe products of com ustio-n to be extracted to a temperature materially lower. than the temperature of the room in which the apparatus is. As compared with the forced draft, which maybe applied to a coal-burning grate, it is observed that such forced draft merely supplies more air and thus increases the rate of combustion of coal used, but that suction applied to liquid fuel in accordance with the invention, not only supplies more air, but increases the rate of evaporation of the liquid. Arrangement so that .the products'of combustion flow downward closely adjacent to the combustion chamber helps promote perfection of combustion, by concentratin heat so as to keep the burner chamber relatively hot, and not allowing it to be unduly cooled by having the full body of cold circulating air pass over its walls.

The accompanying drawings illustrate one embodiment of the invention, and alternative arrangements thereof. In the drawings, Figure 1 is an elevation in section through such apparatus, with a room of a house indicated diagrammatically;

Figure 2 is a side elevation, fragmentary, ofa different arrangement with the piping in vertical section;

Figure 3 is a front elevation, fragmentary, of the form shown in Figure 2, with its casing added;

Figure tie a diagram illustrating, inplan, the use of units like those of Figures 2 and 3;

Figure 5 is a diagram in plan, showing a different group arrangement.

Referring to the drawings, 10 illustrates a casing, which may be understood to hang by ties 11 from ceiling 12 of a cellar or other apartment in which the heater is placed. This casing has an open top leading through a register 13 in said ceiling into a room whose wall is marked 14 and whose ceiling 1.5 has another opening with register 16 leading into a room above.

' ing the wick up or down.

Within the casing 10 is a suitable burner and combustion chamber 20. As the type of burner is not material, exce t that it should be one operating successful y and safely, of which several varieties are already known, the drawing merely indicates its presence, showingthe exterior thumb nut 19 for turn- Air of the apartment can pass freely into-this chamber for purposes of combustion at a place indicated the arrows or at other suitable places pros vided for the purpose. The combustion chamber, as illustrated, is of sheet iron arb ranged in simple cylindrical form, and the said openings for entrance of air are assumed to be sufficiently restricted to cause subatmospheric conditions ofpressureto prevail. It is closed above by a sheet metal cone 21 from whose top a suction and radiating pipe or conduit 22 leads upward a short distance and then spirally,

and helically (Figure l) downward within the casing to about the level of the burner where it is connected with a pipe 23, leading outside of the casing to a suction blower 24, or other mechanical evacuator of gaseous contents, whose discharge 25 may be connected to a chimney flue or otherwise projected out of doors.

The casing is closed at the bottom by suitable means which excludes from it air of the apartment but permits entrance of out of doors air through. duct 30iand openings 28. The sheet metal which constitutes the combustion chamber 20 may rest on the casing bottom by means of a flange 20', and has notches 20" in which by a bayonet joint the oil reservoir. 19 is removably supported. The air for combustion may enter between this reservoir and its casinv 18. Air may also enter through the middl e of the bottom of the oil reservoir in case a central draft burner is used; or any other suitable arrangement by which adequate air reaches the place of combustion may be made. The air which enters through duct 30 is referably barred from commlngling direct y with this air which is to support combustion; but may flow around through the annular duct 29 to all sides. of the burner so that it rises through the openings 28 which are placed preferably under the group of convolutions 22, just inside'of the lowest and outmost of them. The suction means 24 makes a partial vacuum in combustion chamber 20, promotes the evaporation of liquid fuel, draws air for its combustion, and removes the roducts of combustion through pipe 22. he temperature of the products is highest in the combustion chamber and in the upmost coils, nearest thereto, and is lowest at the place most distant therefrom, having gradually grown less as heat has 22 to the circulating air, within casing 10.

This air flows through duct 30, openings 28, casin 10 and the register 13 into the room li. paratus such as this, the temperature of the exhaust products of combustion can be reduced'to a point very close to that of the outside :air before they enter the discharge 23. This is because said products are moved by mechanical means, and their movement does not depend upon temperature differences; and it isto be contrasted with the situation in a coal furnace installation, \where the smoke-pipe passing to the chimney flue is usually considerably hotter than the surrounding air in the cellar, and many degrees hotter than the incoming circulating air. By the present arrangement there is saved both this difference over surrounding cellar air and also theheat involved in the extraction to a sub-temperature close to that of the out of doors air. Assuming that the temperature is 50 in the cellar where the heater is, and that the temperature of the incoming fresh air is'10, it will be seen that this saving may be considerable. If the incoming cold air came first in contact with the most highly heated portions ofthe pipe 22 so great a saving would not be possible, for then the latter parts of that pipe could not be reduced below the temperature which the incoming air had thus acquired from xperience has shown that, by apthe said highly heated arts; but under the arrangement illustrate in which the opening 28 delivers air against the pipe containing the products of combustion, that are just about to go out, there is a progressive surrender of heat as the products of combustion move toward the evacuating means, continually meeting colder circulating air which can extract more heat, notwithstandingthe heat they have already lost.

The heating air entering the room 14 through the register 13 provides ventilation and can circulate through the register 16 into an apartment above without a directly connecting pipe, if desired. It is obvious that the heating air might be conducted to any particular room or rooms in pipes as air is now conveyed from coal furnaces.

Single units of oil heaters of the type mentioned, as ordinarily constructed, are inadequate in capacity for heating houses of an considerable size; but the invention provi es means by which units can be combined, with results additional to those attained by merely multiplying units. The drawings illustrate, in Figures 2 and 3, a type in which the course of the pipe 22 carries the hot products of combustion through a trianguar area on one side only of the burner, in a plane oblique to the axis of the burner, and with the horizontal dimension larger toward the bottom. This may be made of ordinary piping, comprising straightsections of i return bends so alternated as to make a continuous course as clearly seen from Figure 3.

Any number of such units may be assembled as indicated in Figure 4 in an oblong casing, until a battery is built sufficient to provide the heating power needed for maximum requirements. During less cold weather, or for heating fewer rooms, it is desirable to operate a heating plant at as high efiiciency as when it works at maximum load. This, which is rarely attained in any mechanism, and which is impossible in a coal furnace, can be measurably at-- tained according to the present-invention by the provision of means 10' separating the passage for heating air into sections, and shutting off circulating air from heater units that are not in use, by dampers 30' in the inlets from the air supply duct 30, as indicated in Figure 4'.

The heater may be supported from the floor if more convenient by legs made of iron pipe on which the caslng may rest in place of the supporting rods 11, high enough ted may be made, except as limitations are embodied in the appended claims.

In the particular forms of the invention selected for illustration, it will be noted that the horizontalextent of the conduit for hot gaseous products of combustion is greater in the lower levels. This adds to efiiciency by allowin greater time forheat to fiow out from t e products of combustion whose temperature is lowest. In the form illustrated in Figures 2 and 3, the frequent deflections of course of the gases passing through the conduit results in throwing the gases repeatedly against the wall of the conduit. It follows that the middle parts of the moving current thus encounter the conduit wall. The heat thereof is thus more quickly imparted to the conduit wall and the general mixture which results also causes thestraight parts of the conduit to receive heat from the gases more rapidly than they would if the flow were direct. In the form illustrated in Figure 1, which is somewhat circular, the direction is changing constantly, although less abruptly.

I claim as my invention 1. A heating device, comprising the combination of a hydro-carbon burner; a chamber receiving its products; a conduit forremoving them having walls of heat conducting material and arranged in an indoor apartment normall having temperature higher than out-ofoors; mechanical means to cause outflow of gases in said conduit; a casing covering a considerable length of said conduit and constituting an air passage; an air duct from out-of-doors to that portion of the casing containing the part of the conduit wherein lowest temperatures prevail; and delivering the inward moving air directly against a considerable length of said conduit and provision for inflow of hi! thence past the higher temperature portions thereof and for indoor discharge-of the air thus heated.

2. A heating device, comprising the combination ofa hydro-carbon burner; a chamber receiving its products; a conduit thence therefor, of heat conducting material descending gradually from the top of the chamber, with the greater part of its length in its lower portion; and mechanical means to cause the gaseous products to flow out from the lower part of said passage; there being means to admit cold air to impinge upon said lower portion of the passage.

3. A heating device, comprising the combination of'a hydro-carbon burner; a chamber receiving the-products thereof; a conduit thence therefor, comprising a pipe ofheat conducting material gradually descending from the top of the said chamber, with frequent reversals of horizontal direction and lying approximately Within and approximately filling a triangular area in a plane oblique to the axis of the burner whose point is at the top and Whose base at the bottom of the chamber, whereby the greater length of pipe is at the bottom; and mechanical means to cause the gaseous products to flow out from the lower part of said pipe; there being means to admit cold air to impinge upon said lower part of the pipe.

4. A heating device, comprising the combination, with a plurality of hydro-carbon burners and separate chambers receiving their products, of conduits for said products leading separately from the tops of the chambers and comprising pipes extending downward and having frequent reversals of direction; said chambers and conduits being composed of heat conducting material and the conduits having a large radiating surface, each arranged close to its chamber and spreading laterally to greater dimensions than the breadth of .its chamber; said conduits and chambers being nested together, alternately facing opposite directions; and a casing covering them all closely and constituting an air passage.

5. A heating device, comprising the combination, with a pluralit of hydro-carbon burners and separate 0 ambers receiving their products, of conduits for said products leading separately from the tops of the chambers and comprising pipes extending downward and having frequent reversals of direction; said chambers and conduits being composed of heat conducting material and the conduits having a large radiating surface, each arranged close to its chamber; a casing covering them all closely and constituting an air passage; and means for directing the flow of air through said casing to one or more selected combinations of chamber and conduit and excluding it from others.

6. A heating device comprising the combination of a burner for a liquid; a combustion chamber enclosing the burner; a casing enclosing said combustion chamber and constituting an upward passage for a heating medium having an opening at the top adapted for delivery through a register in the ceiling; a conduit leading from the top of the combustion chamber and having a con siderable length of heat radiating walls closely packed in the casing, surrounding GEORGE s. BARROWS. 

